Over 15 months after the 2020 Endsars protests, the Senate has called on the Federal Government of Nigeria to evolve and implement holistic reforms in the Nigerian Police Force.
The national assembly noted that it believes that employing more able-bodied personnel, injecting more financial resources for the purpose of procuring arms, ammunition, and other policing gadgets, as well undertaking regular training will ensure efficient policing in the country.
This formed part of the recommendations contained in the 69-page report of the Joint Committee on National Security and Intelligence; Defence; Police Affairs; Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters on the mayhem visited on the ancient city of Calabar during the #EndSARS protests on October 23 and 24, 2020 which has been obtained by Africa Daily News, New York.
In his presentation, Chairman of the Joint Committee, Senator Ibrahim Gobir, said that investigative hearings by the lawmakers revealed that the violence in Calabar metropolis during the protests, which led to the looting and destruction of private and government-owned properties, was ‘largely spontaneous with no identified goals, leaders, sponsors or financiers’.
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‘It was a free reign for amorphous groups, gangs, and criminals,’ Senator Gobir was quoted as saying in a statement by Senate President Ahmad Lawan’s media aide, Ezrel Tabiowo.
He disclosed that one of the victims of the protest, Senator Bassey Henshaw, who appeared before the committee, narrated his ordeal, saying it took a miracle to get him, his wife, and daughter out from the mob which vandalised its way right into his bedroom.
Henshaw, according to Gobir, stated before the committee that the attacks were deliberately orchestrated by some politicians who perceived them as political enemies.
He attributed the violence to the displacement of the people of Bakassi as a result of ceding their homelands to the Republic of Cameroon, a situation that turned some of them into militants.
The former lawmaker pointed out that the #EndSARS protest was used as an opportunity by militants to unleash mayhem on the city of Calabar, adding that he lost properties worth over N9.3 billion to the attack.
In addition, the joint committee stated in its report that a total of 41government properties were vandalised by hoodlums during the #EndSARS protests around Calabar municipal and neighbouring Bakassi, Odukpani, and Akpabuyo Local Government Areas of Cross River State.
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
